Right: Shows James Lee DiMaggio earlier this year. Left: James Lee DiMaggio in 1995, only three years before his father, James Everet DiMaggio killed himself.
James Lee DiMaggio, 40, was killed earlier this weekend at the conclusion of the search for suspected Amber Alert victim Hannah Anderson, 16 — but in strange twist, archived articles from the San Diego Union-Tribune along with a new interview from an alleged victim show that DiMaggio’s father was guilty of very similar crimes.
Here is what you know about this multi-generational legacy of violence:
1. He Also Was in Love With a 16-Year-Old Friend’s Daughter
In July 1989, according to an article in the Union-Tribune archives, the elder DiMaggio went to his ex-girlfriend, Therese Dusenberry’s house in El Cajon, California, wearing a stocking mask and armed with a sawed-off shotgun. Finding his ex not at home, DiMaggio took her 16-year-old daughter and her boyfriend hostage. He reportedly handcuffed the boyfriend to a bedpost, but accidentally let the teenage girl escape when she asked to use the bathroom.
Exactly like the younger DiMaggio’s relationship with Hannah Anderson, James Everet took care of Dusenberry’s two children, including the 16-year-old daughter, and took them on road trips. A contemporary interview, which you can watch above, with the 16-year-old girl reveals that James Everet DiMaggio declared his love to the teen and asked her to run away with him.
2. He Was Guilty of Numerous Assaults and Crimes
The San Diego Union-Tribune reported in December 1989 that James Everet DiMaggio was accused of first-degree burglary and beating a couple with a baseball bat in a El Cajon motel.
Police at the time said DiMaggio broke into the motel room of Cynthia Marie Bryant, 32, and Aaron DeBord, 20, and beat them both with a baseball bat. The bat was found in the motel room and the car that was seen driving away from the scene was recovered abandoned near a lake and traced back to DiMaggio. According to NBC, the three had been doing crystal meth when DiMaggio assaulted them with the aluminum bat.
By the time he could be convicted of that crime however, he was already in prison serving two years for the break in at the ex-girlfriend’s home. For the motel incident, DiMaggio was sentenced to a minimum of 3 months in jail after he plead guilty to robbery.
3. He Was Described as a Divorced Father of Two
In the San Diego Union-Tribune, James Everet DiMaggio was described as a divorced father of two, a car salesman at a Honda dealership, and an Army veteran.
James Lee DiMaggio is said to have grown up in that hostile and broken home. A friend of the younger DiMaggio’s sister spoke out the day of his death on Saturday August 10, saying that his sister was very concerned he was tumbling down the same dark path as their father.
4. He Killed Himself in 1998
Part of their father’s behavior James Lee DiMaggio’s sister did not want him to repeat was his suicide. on August 10, 1998, after a tumultuous life, James Everet DiMaggio died from, “drug-induced” suicide. Exactly 18 years to the day later, his son James Lee DiMaggio was shot dead after shooting at the FBI rescue team while they were looking to recover Hannah Anderson.
A friend of DiMaggio’s was concerned that he was looking to follow in his father’s footsteps by trying to die, “under similar circumstances.”
5. He Was Broke, Just like His Son
In a 1989 article of the San Diego Union-Tribune, James Everet DiMaggio’s mother, the grandmother of James Lee DiMaggio, said that her son, “spent most of his money,” on his ex-girlfriend and her daughter that he held captive.
Similarly, James Lee DiMaggio was expected to look after the Anderson family after their father, Brett Anderson, took a job in Tennessee around six months ago. However, it was reported last week that the younger DiMaggio was also having money problems and may have been in the process of loosing his home when police say he kidnapped Hannah Anderson and killed her mother and brother.